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Hey y'all, and welcome to Mayberry Radio, coming to you from Mount Airy, NC. Mount Airy, otherwise known as Mayberry (accept no substitutes) is the birthplace of Andy Griffith and Donna Fargo (the "Happiest Girl in the Whole USA"), and is located in Surry County in northwest NC. What do we do in Surry County other than play hosts each year to thousands of Mayberry tourists? Well, farming for one thing. In fact, the brains behind Mayberry Radio belong to Steve and Joe, who both grew up on tobacco farms. What we used to do around here is perhaps a longer list, but with most of the furniture and textiles mills long gone, we traded one vice for what we think is a better one: wine. Or, as we tell the tourists, we've turned smokin' land into drinkin' land. And if you think that having a whole mess o' wineries doesn't quite jibe with our wholesome Mayberry image, then you obviously haven't read "Getting Sloshed in Mayberry" in that great paragon of literature, Modern Drunkard Magazine. And now a few words about the music. The first question you might have is "Why the heck are you playing tracks by the Monkees?". Well, folks, our rules are simple: every track we play has to have some connection to Mount Airy, Mayberry, North Carolina, or our area (we're a border county with Virginia). In the case of the Monkees, one of the studio musicians, Ken Bloom, is credited on the tracks that we play. Ken is from California, but has lived in Pilot Mountain (Mt. Pilot to you Andy Griffith Show fans--and that's most of you, isn't it?)for many years, and we now consider him one of us. Another question you may have is, why don't we play more Andy Griffith stuff? We'd like to, but to put it simply, copyright rules prevent us from playing more that a few tracks every three hour period. The good news is that we can give you a more varied playlist and perhaps turn you on to some new music. Sounds like a fair trade-off, doesn't it? So okay, how about some of the other artists we play? In no particular order, here's an abridged rundown. Earl Scruggs was born in Shelby, and grew up in Cleveland County. Al Nichol, who played guitar with the Turtles (“Happy Together”), was born in Winston-Salem in 1946. The Country Boys appeared on the AG show twice; members included Leroy Mack and Clarence White. White was a member of the Kentucky Colonels, as well as the Byrds. Melva Houston:"In 1979, I'd started working as a nursing/home assistant and in the meantime met my husband Thaxton. I moved to Mount Airy to take care of his aunt and never left." Melva grew up in Memphis and sang backup on some of the later tracks by the Box Tops. Mitch Easter, a native of Winston-Salem, formed Let's Active in 1981; that same year, he produced R.E.M.'s debut single "Radio Free Europe". Oliver (Good Morning Starshine) was born in North Wilkesboro, NC, about an hour's drive from Mount Airy. Doc Watson is from Deep Gap, just a few miles up the mountain from N. Wilkesboro. Doc is a national treasure. James Taylor was born in New England but moved to NC when he was three. "Carolina in My Mind" certainly makes him one of us. Earle Hagen was the writer of many TV show themes, the most well-known being the AG Show. We'll try to add more Hagen as our library grows, but in the meantime enjoy his wonderful and original compositions for I Spy. The original Siamese Twins, Eng and Chang, settled near Mount Airy, married sisters and fathered 21 children between them. They were never separated and are buried not far from their farms. They are a major tourist attraction and many of their descendants live in the area. Tommy Jarrell is a legend in Old Time music circles. What is "Old Time" music? Well, we can't define it but we know it when we hear it. There's more, lots more, but we don't have room here to list everything. Hopefully, when we get out website going we can annotate all our tracks. Lastly, thanks to Darrell and Debbie at Mayberry on Main for the loan of CDs and all their help.